Robert Crowther’s Pop-Up Dinosaur Alphabet
Walker Books
I’ve tried on many occasions to compile a dinosaur alphabet book with young children but we’ve always got stuck with a few letters and ended up inventing. No so, Robert Crowther. He has created a lift-the flap/pull the tag book with a dinosaur for each and every letter, even x. This is represented by Xiantingia – a chicken-sized, bird-like dinosaur discovered in China in 2011. How tiny this looks in comparison with say, Janenschia (also new to me).

This massive, tiny-brained dinosaur was as long as two buses and its enormously long neck enabled it to graze at the top of trees. Even this one though is small compared with the longest ever land animal, our old friend Diplodocus, the adult of which was as long as one and a half tennis courts. Information such as this (as well as in most instances, what it ate) is provided under the letter flap along with the helpful pronunciation of the creature’s name.
Children will delight in particular, to learn that the final dinosaur, Zuniceratops, was discovered by an eight-year-old boy.
On the back inside cover is a silhouette of each dinosaur so readers can compare their relative sizes and make a comparison with the central human figure.

There are also some dinosaur-related terms and information on the three dinosaur eras showing whether each one lived in the Triassic, Jurassic or Cretaceous period.
Great paper engineering, exciting and fascinating facts and an ever-popular topic with children – it can’t fail to delight.

For slightly younger dino-addicts is:

Ten Terrible Dinosaurs
Paul Stickland
Picture Corgi pbk
This is a welcome reissue of a counting down, rhyming dinosaur romp and a companion volume to Dinosaur Roar. The vividly coloured creatures get up to all manner of lively, child-like activities such as dancing, stuffing themselves, playing tricks and more, as one by one they exit or are eliminated from the line-up (Not too sure about one sent off for being ‘too spiky’ what’s wrong with being different?) until just one dozing dinosaur remains. But then …

Great fun, with counting opportunities aplenty and perhaps even better, a chance to let rip with that grand finale.

The Tobermory Cat 1 2 3
Debi Gliori
Birlinn pbk
That well known, endearing ginger cat, Tobermory Cat , resident of the Isle of Mull, returns in a second story, a narrative counting book this time. Our feline friend wakes up hungry and having been given his breakfast – 1 bowl of cat food and 2 saucers of milk, sets off in search of more to fill up his tummy. So what does he find? Plenty by all accounts. 3 crab claws on the pier, then it’s time for a nap.

Lunch is next – actually 5 lunches and still that cat wants more. Off he goes once more and by the time night falls, that cat with a seemingly insatiable appetite has consumer has feasted on 7 salmon snacks, 8 birds (in his dreams this time), 9 midges – well almost

and for dinner, 10 delicious fish courtesy of the local restaurant all of which makes him very thirsty. Time for a drink – puddle water is nearby but this is no ordinary puddle – a whole galaxy is reflected therein. Full at last, Tobermory settles down for the night.
Debi Gliori provides gorgeous illustrations of the items that go into Tobermory Cat’s tum and other things to count, which don’t, as well as some beautiful seascapes and a fold-out puddle reflecting Tobermory Cat and the night sky with its galaxy of stars. There is a gentle humour running through the story and I particularly like the way other mathematical ideas as well as simple counting are included.

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